Update: U.S.S. New York sets sail: built with steel from the WTC
Update 11/8: She is now in active duty. God Bless.
USS New York, built with steel salvaged from the fallen Twin Towers, officially went into active duty yesterday in a somber but spirited ceremony on the West Side.
Families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks gathered at the Intrepid Museum on Pier 86 with hundreds of others — including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton..
..It awes me to think that from the ashes, this ship has formed and to know it’s serving us,” said Helen Zaccoli, 45, whose husband, Joseph, died at the trade center.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stands among Navy personnel at the start of the commissioning ceremony for the USS New York on the Intrepid Museum on November 7, 2009 in New York City. The amphibious transport dock ship is made in part of 7.5 tons of reforged steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. UPI Photo/Monika Graff
Update 11/2: She arrived in NYC today. God Bless her and the crew and GOD BLESS AMERICA.
GIVE ME LIBERTY: The Statue of Liberty welcomes the newest Navy ship, USS New York, as it enters the harbor yesterday. Part of the vessel is made with steel from the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The World Trade Center sailed into the city this morning.
The USS New York, which has a bow built from 7.5 tons of Twin Towers steel, stopped near Ground Zero as a detail on board fired off a 21-gun salute.
US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Paul Bersher, of Long Island, right, stands watch as the USS New York as the ship passes under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Monday, Nov. 2, 2009 in New York Harbor. (N.Y. Post: Chad Rachman)
Families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks standing on the north cove then saluted the Navy’s newest warship as it continued up the Hudson.
After the 21-gun salute, petty officers Mike Sullivan and Paul Bershers,who were on watch on the bow, started singing Billy Joel‘s “New York State of Mind.”
After the Ground Zero stop, the ship escorted by about two dozen tugboats and other vessels headed up the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge. After a U-turn there, it was to head south to Pier 88. An official commissioning ceremony is scheduled for Saturday.
“It’s a transformation … from something really twisted and ugly, said Rosaleen Tallon, who lost her firefighter brother, Sean, on 9/11. “I’m proud that our military is using that steel.”
Tallon said her brother, who was also was a Marine, also would have been proud…
Moderate in the Middle 